Sorry, but a good idea is NOT enough

Like most of you, I get a lot of stuff trying to sell me things.


I would cheerfully strangle whoever unleashes those bloody recorded messages just about that time in the late afternoon when I think I really need a drink.

And I would grant full-time unemployment to the people who send me messages about how to manage disgruntled employees – because they wouldn’t be disgruntled if they were managed properly.

But the people I feel sympathy for are those who get it almost right – like the case on the left.

Whoever it is (and I have no idea – giving me a clue would be a step in the direction of sanity) had a neat idea and took some trouble.

As you can see, it’s a tiny envelope – visiting card size, handwritten, with my name on it. It jumped the greatest hurdle with ease. It got my attention – which believe me is not easy on a day when I had one important meeting, a webinar to run and an insert to write, plus the usual flood of emails to reply to.

Then what? I open the damn envelope – couldn’t ignore it. And got this utterly cryptic message inside. To start with, why the hell would I want over 59 million customers? I assume this is the population of this country, and is some dubious calculation. If so, many of them are either babies, senile, penniless or criminals in jail or the Houses of Parliament. None of them any use, really.

I imagine this is the start of a series of teasers. If so, I will keep you posted … no pun intended.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

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